benighted meaning (obsolete): definition

benighted

adj

UK /bɪˈnaɪtɪd/ · US /bɪˈnaɪtɪd/

Etymology From benight + -ed.

Obsolete, Poetic Overtaken by night; especially of a traveller, etc.: caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination.

The Porter anſwered, This Man is in a Journey from the City of Deſtruction to Mount Zion, but being weary, and benighted, he asked me if he might lodge here to night; ſo I told him I would call for thee, who after diſcourſe had with him, mayeſt do as ſeemeth thee good, even according to the Law of the Houſe.1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, pages 51–52:
The Moon (that roves like thee) ſhou'd fail, / The Stars benighted prove, / The Sun (that burns like me) ſhou'd ceaſe / To ſhine, ere thou to love?1739, “Song XVIII. With Tuneful Pipe, and Merry Glee.”, in The Cupid. A Collection of Love Songs, in Twelve Parts. Suited to Twelve Different Sorts of Lovers. […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 12:

4 more examples

Where art thou, poor benighted Traveller! / The Stars will light thee; tho' the Moon ſhould fail. / Where art Thou, more benighted! more aſtray! / In Ways immoral? The Stars call thee back; / And, if obey'd their Counſel, ſet thee right.1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 317:
Slighting the petty need he showed, / He told of his benighted road; […]1810, Walter Scott, “Canto I. The Chase.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 27:
I recollect well losing the goodwill of my old grandmother by allowing a benighted wagoner to light his lantern while her back was turned, […]1890, Algernon Blackwood, Christmas in England, Methodist Magazine, Volume 32, pg481
To that god-trodden western shore, as flit benighted birds.1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC:

Obsolete Plunged into darkness.

Rob the Spheare of lines vnited, / Make a ſuddaine voide in nature: / Force the day to be benighted, / Reaue the cauſe of time and creature.1600, “The Sheepheards Sorrow, Being Disdained in Loue”, in Englands Helicon, London: Printed by I. R[oberts] for Iohn Flasket, […], →OCLC:
Still we wait for thine Appearing, / Life and Joy thy Beams impart, / Chaſing all our Fears, and chearing / Ev'ry poor benighted Heart: […]1779, “Hymn LXXVII. Epiphany. Isaiah ix. 2.”, in [Martin] Madan, compiler, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Extracted from Various Authors, […], 9th edition, London: Printed by Henry Cock; […], →OCLC, stanza II, page 78:

Figuratively Lacking education or knowledge; unenlightened; also, lacking morality; immoral, unscrupulous.

[I]t would be difficult to name any writers who have contributed so much to promote the progress of civilization as "these illustrious authors—these friends of human nature—these kind instructers of human errors and frailties—these benevolent spirits, who held up the torch of science to a benighted world."a. 1800, Henry Wheaton, quoting Patrick Henry, “Sketch of the History of International Law”, in Elements of International Law: With a Sketch of the History of the Science, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, published 1836, →OCLC, page 30:
Where art thou, poor benighted Traveller! / The Stars will light thee; tho' the Moon ſhould fail. / Where art Thou, more benighted! more aſtray! / In Ways immoral? The Stars call thee back; / And, if obey'd their Counſel, ſet thee right.1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 317:

4 more examples

A radiant morn of light and happineſs then dawned upon this benighted land, yielding the joyous earneſt of a future reſplendent day.1790, William Smith, A Sermon, on Temporal and Spiritual Salvation: Delivered in Christ-Church, Philadelphia, before the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: From the press of T[homas] Dobson, →OCLC, page 19:
[Y]et the recollection of the impressions which had been made upon his heart, through their instrumentality, inspired them with renewed zeal in their work, and led them to cry mightily unto the Lord that his great salvation might even yet appear to the benighted barbarians by whom they were surrounded.1832, Thomas Smith, John O[verton] Choules, “[History of the Missions of the United Brethren, or Moravians.] Mission to Greenland.”, in The Origin and History of Missions; Containing Faithful Accounts of the Voyages, Travels, Labors, and Successes of the Various Missionaries, who have been Sent Forth to Evangelize the Heathen; […] In Two Volumes, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Published by S. Walker, and Lincoln & Edmands; sold also by Crocker & Brewster, and Pierce & Parker, →OCLC, page 44, column 1:
[T]o attend to the interests of the enslaved negro; to awaken the benighted Hottentot to a sense of truth; to convert Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Papists; […] all these things had this woman to do, and for near fourscore years she fought her fight womanfully: […]1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Colonel Newcome’s Wild Oats”, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 15:
All people knew (or thought they knew) that he had made himself immensely rich; and, for that reason alone, prostrated themselves before him, more degradedly and less excusably than the darkest savage creeps out of his hole in the ground to propitiate, in some log or reptile, the Deity of his benighted soul.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “In which a Great Patriotic Conference is Holden”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 2nd book (Riches), page 417:

Figuratively, Obsolete Difficult to understand; abstruse, obscure.

[O]thers, held very good men, are at a dead ſtand, not knovving vvhat to doe or ſay; and are therefore called Seekers, looking for nevv Nuntio's from Chriſt, to aſſoil theſe benighted queſtions, and to give nevv Orders for nevv Churches.1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 18:

Derived terms: benightedly, benightedness, unbenighted